Connor O’Leary And Leonardo Fioravanti Qualify For 2017 World Tour

A season on the World Qualifying Series means a long year. Like, forty-nine events in twenty different nations long. And while not all of those events are must-dos, the relentless pace of the schedule is still enough to drive a man insane. It does, in fact, drive some men insane. But it drives other men to the World Tour.

This year, two of those men are Connor O’Leary and Leonardo Fioravanti.

The season just ended Connor, who is 23 years old and comes from Currumbin, Australia, finished first on the QS. After missing the World Tour by a few spots last year, Connor won the first Prime event of the season this year and never looked back. His surfing is precise, his attitude is positive and he’s got everything it takes to make (loud) noise on the big stage when the Quik Pro Gold Coast rolls around. Consider yourself warned. Seriously.

A video posted by Quiksilver (@quiksilver) on Dec 5, 2016 at 11:07am PST

Leo, who is 18 years old and fresh out of Rome, Italy, had a totally different path to qualification. After breaking his back two years ago, he returned to competition this year a new man. He kicked 2017 off by making back-to-back finals then spearheading a few major upsets as a wildcard in the CT at Margaret River. From there, he kept on collecting results and put out a banger edit while he was at it. He’s the first Italian to ever qualify for the tour, and his names comes with the most hype rolling into next season.